Built To Serve God (Part 2)

Built To Serve God (Part 2)

www.crbible.com/sermons

Introduction:

1. The Bible is quite clear. Nobody is saved from the penalty of sin by being good enough. We are saved by God’s grace through faith alone in Jesus Christ.

2. You were created by God as a new person in Christ for the purpose of doing good works. God desires to fully equip you to serve Him and do good works for Him.

2 Timothy 2:21, 3:17

3. God likens the body of Christ to a building (Ephesians 2:21), and each of us are bricks in that building (Ephesians 2:22). You have been built to serve God!

4. There are several building blocks that God will use in your life to prepare you to serve Him effectively and to make an impact on others for Christ.

First building block: your past

Second building block: your heart

1. When the Bible talks about the heart, it is not referring to the organ inside of you that is pumping blood. Your heart is the real YOU! It is not the person that people perceive you to be, but it is who you really are in your innermost being.

2. In Matthew 22:37, Jesus said to love God with “all your heart.” Proverbs 23:7 exclaims that as a man “thinketh in his heart, so is he.”

3. The heart refers to the seat of your emotions, your mind, your desires, and your passions.

4. Have you ever noticed how one believer can be passionate about a certain subject, and another believer is not as passionate, but has a burden for another area of service? Why is this? After all, they both love God and want to serve God. So, why are they so different?

• It is because each of us has a heart that is unique to us. No two people’s hearts will be absolutely identical.

• As we come to understand this truth, it will help us to not be so critical of others, and not to get our feelings hurt when others aren’t as excited as we are about certain things.

5. Some people make the Christian life very spooky and mysterious. They say you must seek God’s “perfect will” about where and how you should serve the Lord.

• Of course they then look for some sort of “signs from God” to reveal His “perfect will” to them, or they look for some sort of inner promptings from God. They are listening for that “still small voice.” Do you know who that voice sounds like? YOU!

6. If you are walking with the Lord daily, you don’t have to fear making decisions and following your desires. Your desires are synonymous with your heart. If your heart is following after God and His Word, your desires won’t be sinful or wrong.

• Let me give you an example. How does a person know if he should be a pastor? Do you look for signs and look for God to “speak to you?” No! Let me shock you. Read 1 Timothy 3:1.

• It’s a desire! You love God’s Word, you love studying it, you love teaching it, and you say to yourself, “I’d like to do this with my entire life and being.” Then you start preparing and working towards that. It’s that simple.

7. Colossians 3:23 is a key verse. When you serve the Lord, God wants you to do it from your heart. “Heartily” means “from the heart; with all the heart; with zeal; eagerly.”

• In other words, whatever you do for the Lord, you ought to be excited over it!

8. Look in our text at 1 Peter 4:9. The context of this passage is ministering for the Lord. Notice it says, “without grudging (grumbling).”

• You may be serving God in a ministry, and you’re grumbling about it and thinking, “I wish I could do that instead.” Do you know what the answer is? Do it!

9. If you don’t have a heart for what you’re doing, and you don’t enjoy it, you are in the wrong ministry. This isn’t to say you won’t have bad and frustrating days. But by and large, you should enjoy your ministry for the Lord.

• Example: Exodus 36:2 (building the tabernacle)

10. When you are serving from your heart, you are excited about it, and you tend to excel at it because you are doing what you are wired to do and what you love to do. People that love what they’re doing tend to be good at it.

11. This point ties in with our first point. You are built to serve the Lord. We have covered two building blocks: your past and your heart.

12. Many times, your past is what gives you a heart for a certain ministry.